Igbo Ukwu (Nigeria) West African Burial and Shrine

Igbo Ukwu is an African Iron Age archaeological site located near the modern town of Onitsha, in the forest zone of southeastern Nigeria. Although it is unclear what kind of a site it is—settlement, residence, or burial—we know that the Igbo Ukwu was used during the late 10th century A.D. Igbo-Ukwu was discovered in 1938 by workmen who were digging a cistern  and professionally excavated by Thurston Shaw in 1959/60 and 1974. Eventually, three localities were identified: Igbo-Isaiah, an underground storage chamber; Igbo-Richard, a burial chamber once lined with wooden planks and floor matting and containing the remains of six individuals; and Igbo-Jonah, an underground cache of ritual and ceremonial objects thought to have been collected during the dismantling of a shrine. Igbo-Ukwu Burials The Igbo-Richard locality was clearly a burial place for an elite (wealthy) person, buried with a large array of grave goods, but it is unknown whether this person was a ruler or had some other religious or secular role in his or her community. The principal interment is an adult seated on a wooden stool, dressed in fine clothing and with rich grave effects including over 150,000 glass beads. The remains of five attendants were found alongside. The burial included a number of elaborate cast bronze vases, bowls, and ornaments, made with the lost wax (or lost latex) technique. Elephant tusks and bronze and silver objects illustrated with elephants were found. The bronze pommel of a sword hilt in the form of a horse and rider was also found in this burial, as were wooden objects and vegetable textiles preserved by their proximity to bronze artifacts. Artifacts at Igbo-Ukwu Over 165,000 glass and carnelian beads were found at Igbo-Ukwu, as were objects of copper, bronze, and iron, broken and complete pottery and burned animal bone. The vast majority of the beads were made of monochrome glass, of yellow, grayish blue, dark blue, dark green, peacock blue, and reddish brown colors. There were also striped beads and multicolored eye beads, as well as stone beads and a few polished and dull quartz beads. Some of the beads and brasses include the portrayal of elephants, coiled snakes, large felines and rams with curving horns. To date, no bead-making workshop has been found at Igbo-Ukwu, and for decades, the array and variety of glass beads found there has been the source of a great debate. If there is no workshop, where did the beads come from? Scholars suggested trade connections with Indian, Egyptian, Near Eastern, Islamic and Venetian bead makers. That fueled another debate about what kind of trade network  Igbo Ukwu was a part of. Was the trade with the Nile Valley, or with the East African Swahili coast, and what did that trans-Saharan trade network look like? Further, did the Igbo-Ukwu people trade slaves, ivory, or silver for beads? Analysis of the Beads In 2001, JEG Sutton argued that the glass beads might have been manufactured in Fustat (Old Cairo) and the carnelian might have come from Egyptian or Saharan sources, along trans-Saharan trade routes. In West Africa, the early second millennium saw increasing reliance on imports of ready-made brass from North Africa, which was then reworked into the famed lost-wax Ife heads. In 2016, Marilee Wood published her chemical analysis of pre-European contact beads from sites all over sub-Saharan Africa, including 124 from Igbo-Ukwu, including 97 from Igbo-Richard and 37 from Igbo-Isaiah. The majority of the monochrome glass beads were found to have been made in West Africa, from a mixture of plant ash, soda lime, and silica, from drawn tubes of glass that were cut into segments. She found that the decorated polychrome beads, segmented beads, and thin tubular beads with diamond or triangular cross-sections were likely imported in finished form from Egypt or elsewhere. What Was Igbo-Ukwu? The main question of the three localities at Igbo-Ukwu persists as the function of the site. Was the site simply the shrine and burial place of a ruler or important ritual personage? Another possibility is that it may have been part of a town with a resident population—and given, the West African source of the glass beads, there may well have been an industrial/metal-workers quarter. If not, there is likely some sort of industrial and artistic center between Igbo-Ukwu and the mines where the glass elements and other materials were quarried, but that hasnt been identified yet. Haour and colleagues (2015) have reported work at Birnin Lafiya, a large settlement on the eastern arc of the Niger river in Benin, that promises to shed light on several late first millennium-early second millennium sites in West Africa such as Igbo-Ukwu, Gao, Bura, Kissi, Oursi, and Kainji. The five-year interdisciplinary and international research called Crossroads of Empires may well assist in understanding the context of Igbo-Ukwu. Sources Haour A, Nixon S, NDah D, Magnavita C, and Livingstone Smith A. 2016. The settlement mound of Birnin Lafiya: new evidence from the eastern arc of the Niger River  . Antiquity 90(351):695-710.Insoll T, and Shaw T. 1997. Gao and Igbo-Ukwu: Beads, interregional trade, and beyond. African Archaeological Review 14(1):9.Onwuejeogwu. M A, and Onwuejeogwu BO. 1977. The Search for the Missing Links in Dating and Interpreting the Igbo Ukwu Finds. Paideuma 23:169-188.Phillipson, David W. 2005. African Archaeology (third edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Sutton JEG. 2001. Igbo-Ukwu and the Nile. African Archaeological Review 18(1):49-62.Wood M. 2016. Glass beads from pre-European contact sub-Saharan Africa: Peter Franciss work revisited and updated. Archaeological Research in Asia 6:65-80.

Analysis of John Hustons the Dead - 1257 Words

James Joyce’s â€Å"The Dead† is one of the most famous and revered short stories in the English language. It is also one of the least eventful. The majority of the action takes place inside the head of Gabriel Conroy; the events of the evening and a revelation about his wife’s former lover trigger a lengthy (and beautifully written) interior monologue, which eventually culminates in an epiphany. It’s through partaking in Gabriel’s thoughts by the use of free indirect discourse that Joyce unfolds the story of Gabriel’s epiphany and the great themes he wishes to convey: recognition of the passage of time, inevitable death, and what happens to the living. In a film, however, the narrative cannot include thoughts (at least not without the†¦show more content†¦This knowledge is crucial to an understanding of Joyce’s story because Gabriel’s belief that he is superior to others contributes to his eventual emotional downfall a nd epiphany. James Joyce could use the subtleties of the written word to insinuate this trait of Gabriel through passages such as, â€Å"He was undecided about the lines from Robert Browning, for he feared they would be above the heads of his hearers† (179), and â€Å"Gabriel strove to restrain himself from breaking out into brutal language about the sottish Malins and his pound† (217). Huston, however, did not have this luxury. Recognizing that the singing scene held great potential for expressiveness, John Huston conveys Gabriel’s conceit to the audience by first coaxing them into sharing his impression of Aunt Julia, and then using the shots of her belongings to show how unfounded and contemptible his views really are. Huston alters several details in the staircase and cab ride scenes to underline Gabriel’s lack of emotional and social intelligence. In the text, when Gabriel is imagining Gretta as the muse for his painting, â€Å"Distant Music,† she is â€Å"in the shadow† (209). Unable to see her face (and therefore her emotions), Gabriel sees only â€Å"the grace and mystery in her attitude† (210). Additionally, when she comes down the staircase, Gabriel notices, â€Å"the colour on her cheeks and that her eyes were shining† (212). In the film, however, Gretta’s face

Leadership Program Case Free Essays

I had spent about 3 months in my new Job at JP Morgan, Singapore, as a business analyst in the clearing and settlement project management team. I was handling a critical and high-budget project spanning over 4 different locations. Pleased with my work and the team player attributes I had shown in the few months, my Executive Director called me into his cabin and offered me an additional responsibility. We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership Program Case or any similar topic only for you Order Now He said that he had started an â€Å"Offshore Test Centre (ETC)† initiative and he felt that it deed a manager and a leader to get it streamlined and functioning well. In addition to my work as an analyst in my project, I would be given the manager position for the ETC team. Thinking that it would be a great opportunity to hone my team leadership skills, I accepted. The ETC or the Offshore Test Centre was a team of consultants from Polaris who were working for JP Morgan. The team comprised of 4 people from Iambi and 3 people from Hydrated, in India, 1 person in London, I-J and 2 people in North America. I was situated in Singapore. When, I officially took over, I was made aware of the problems immediately. The person who was leading the team before me had little experience in the clearing and settlement technology area and was not able to provide the required level of expertise. He was let go and I was the replacement manager. The main issues I encountered were: 1 . ) It was a new team and until now there had been no one to structure it or establish any guidelines. There was no team cohesion and feeling of camaraderie within the am was absent. 2. ) The members had not received any training or formal knowledge sessions related to technology and business. . ) There was no recognition for the team as it hadn’t been able to carve a niche for itself. The technology team did their own quality testing as there was no trust and hence no dependency. 4. ) They already had a team leader at offshore who was handling the administration activities for Polaris, and he handled the leaves, appraisal and allocation for the team members. I started off by making a formal introduction via email and video conferencing to ensure that everyone in different time zones was included. We had a good initial knowledge transfer session where I shared my knowledge in the areas of work and my vision for the team. The team members gave me an idea of the kind of work they had been doing in the past and the processes and flows and also what their goals and expectations were. During the week, I set up one-on-one meetings with every individual and spoke at length. I kept the tone informal and lowly but steadily, people opened up and spoke about the issues they encountered and offered solutions as well. I established a weekly reporting process, where I consolidated the tasks completed by each member and sent it to the senior management. This improved the visibility of our team. I made sure, with the help of my director that the process was more streamlined and all the enhancements and change releases went through our team first for quality assurance. This not only created a healthy dependency between the technology, management and the test team, but also helped open dialogues between the teams making the collaboration stronger. Most importantly, I set up training sessions every alternate day and made sure I received feedback and summarization on the sessions from the members. I initially did face some negative reactions to the changes from some of the team members, especially from the offshore leader. But eventually, as we made progress and the positive implications became clear, I started receiving positive feedbacks and my team claimed that it was much happier with their radioactivity. We started catering to diverse teams and technology, and in the process I had learn the new business and technology as well for the order matching and celebration team. Best part was, that the team was now recognized among the top management as one of the efficient quality assurance team as our delivery defects were substantially reduced by over 40%. My Executive director was happy as the both technology and management team both felt that the entire system was now benefiting from this step. How to cite Leadership Program Case, Papers

Sexual Asexual Example For Students

Sexual Asexual Question Answer The study of how traits are studied Genetics Structures in a cells nucleus that are made of DNA (the genetic material). Chromosomes A distinguishing characteristic or quality; eye color, face shape. Traits The passing of traits from parents to offspring. Heredity A type of reproduction (regeneration, budding, binary fission, vegetative propagation) in which a new organism is produced by 1 PARENT!! with identical DNA to the parent. Asexual Reproduction A type of asexual reproduction that produces a bud that breaks away from the organism to live in its own Budding A type of asexual reproduction, uses cell division to regrow body parts. Regeneration An organism spitting, making 2 identical organisms. Binary Fission The ability of plants to reproduce by producing new plants from existing vegetative structures. Vegetative Propagation Children or young of a particular parent descendent. Offspring A type of reproduction in which 2 PARENTS!! form a unique offspring (offspring is diverse) Sexual Reproduction 2 Alleles in a gene pair are the SAME!! for a particular trait(EX: rr or RR) (can also be clarified as purebreds) Homozygous 2 Alleles in a gene pair are DIFFERENT!! for a particular trait.(EX: Rr) ( can also be clarified as hybrids) Heterozygous Describes a trait that is often covered up, is only seen when both alleles in a gene pair are recessive.(EX: lowercase r) Recessive Describes a trait that is always seen anytime it is present in a gene pair. (EX: uppercase R) Dominant An organisms genetic makeup, or alleles for a trait. Genotype Physical appearance behavior of an organism because of the genes it has. Phenotype Another name for heterozygous, alleles for a trait that are different. Hybrid Another name for homozygous, alleles for a trait are the same. Purebred A tool used to predict probability of certain traits in offspring. Punnet Square